My hand dyeing experience
09-09-2009, 09:49 AM
#21
Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Somewhere near the water in beautiful Michigan
Posts: 772
rb, I LOVE your fabrics! You have a great eye for color and I can just imagine how glorious those colors will look in your Mariner's Compass or New York Beauty quilts!
Kudos to you and now I wanna just dye!!!!!!!!!!!!
Odessa
Kudos to you and now I wanna just dye!!!!!!!!!!!!
Odessa
09-09-2009, 02:34 PM
#26
Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Oslo, Norway
Posts: 410
would you be a sweetheart and do a picture tutorial on how to do this; this exactly how i want my fabric to look
:lol: Yup. :D
Ok, everyone. First, Moonpi is right about the mottling. I was going for the mottled look, and I used a low water immersion dyeing technique, basically putting the fat quarter in a bowl, pouring the cup of dye liquid on it, squeezing it out, crumpling up the fat quarter, putting it in a beer cup, and pouring the dye from the bowl into the cup. Weighted with a couple polished stones. I will give the website link, but if you want solid colour, you can also wet the fabric with the dye, and put it in a ziploc type bag.
Ok, so, I learned, somewhat, how to do this from this website. Lots of instructions and recipes. Watch the recipes, though. Unless I missed something in reading, the concentrate recipes require more water to mix with the powder than she calls for. Perhaps she scaled it down and lost something in the process, or I just can't read. Anyway, this site will take up your whole day.
http://fabricdyeing101.blogspot.com/...roduction.html
I purchased my dyes, because I'm in Canada, at G&S in Toronto (no duty at the border, no currency exchange neccessary). They also have silk dyes, fabrics, etc. They were very fast, and online purchases can be made, by phone, etc.
http://www.gsdye.com/index.html
Another place to purchase could be another site I came across in Saskatchewan:
http://www.harmonyhanddyes.com/index.html
For Americans, as was mentioned above, Dharma Trading Co. has TONS of stuff. I purchased my fabric, a 25 yard bolt, from them. Even though it had to come to Canada, I had it in days. With exchange and shipping, my fabric cost about $4.40 a yard.
http://www.dharmatrading.com/
If I missed any questions, I will come back (grocery shopping time...blech) and try to catch them. But it was very easy, and yes, you can't use your food stuff for it, and use it again for food. Dedicated bowls, measuring spoons, etc. Oh, and don't buy your measuring spoons at the dollar store. They are FAAAR from accurate. Get a new set for your kitchen, and use your old ones that you know are accurate. For a bowl I used a Gladware/Ziploc kind of disposable container that's about 4x4, and about 4 inches deep. Worked great. Plastic ice cream buckets, kitty litter plastic containers with lids, etc.
:mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
Originally Posted by rb.
Originally Posted by Ducky
My apologies. I thought you were fairly new. You're just the silent type :lol:
Ok, everyone. First, Moonpi is right about the mottling. I was going for the mottled look, and I used a low water immersion dyeing technique, basically putting the fat quarter in a bowl, pouring the cup of dye liquid on it, squeezing it out, crumpling up the fat quarter, putting it in a beer cup, and pouring the dye from the bowl into the cup. Weighted with a couple polished stones. I will give the website link, but if you want solid colour, you can also wet the fabric with the dye, and put it in a ziploc type bag.
Ok, so, I learned, somewhat, how to do this from this website. Lots of instructions and recipes. Watch the recipes, though. Unless I missed something in reading, the concentrate recipes require more water to mix with the powder than she calls for. Perhaps she scaled it down and lost something in the process, or I just can't read. Anyway, this site will take up your whole day.
http://fabricdyeing101.blogspot.com/...roduction.html
I purchased my dyes, because I'm in Canada, at G&S in Toronto (no duty at the border, no currency exchange neccessary). They also have silk dyes, fabrics, etc. They were very fast, and online purchases can be made, by phone, etc.
http://www.gsdye.com/index.html
Another place to purchase could be another site I came across in Saskatchewan:
http://www.harmonyhanddyes.com/index.html
For Americans, as was mentioned above, Dharma Trading Co. has TONS of stuff. I purchased my fabric, a 25 yard bolt, from them. Even though it had to come to Canada, I had it in days. With exchange and shipping, my fabric cost about $4.40 a yard.
http://www.dharmatrading.com/
If I missed any questions, I will come back (grocery shopping time...blech) and try to catch them. But it was very easy, and yes, you can't use your food stuff for it, and use it again for food. Dedicated bowls, measuring spoons, etc. Oh, and don't buy your measuring spoons at the dollar store. They are FAAAR from accurate. Get a new set for your kitchen, and use your old ones that you know are accurate. For a bowl I used a Gladware/Ziploc kind of disposable container that's about 4x4, and about 4 inches deep. Worked great. Plastic ice cream buckets, kitty litter plastic containers with lids, etc.
09-09-2009, 02:46 PM
#27
Junior Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: northern Ontario, Canada
Posts: 233
Originally Posted by sunnyhope
would you be a sweetheart and do a picture tutorial on how to do this; this exactly how i want my fabric to look
:mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
:mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
09-09-2009, 05:29 PM
#29
Power Poster
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Lake Elsinore, CA
Posts: 15,143
Those fabrics are beautiful! Did you do all the dying indoors, or did you have to go outside or to the garage? How much of a mess does it make? I took a one-day dying class 3 years ago, and the instructor taught it outside. We made a huge mess, but that could have been the methods she taught. I also got the impression the dyes were really expensive. (I know the class was!)
09-09-2009, 05:46 PM
#30
Junior Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: northern Ontario, Canada
Posts: 233
No, I did it all indoors, and in my kitchen as a matter of fact. I have no choice, at least for the mixing, immersion part. It did not make a big mess, I had a bucket in one sink, the bowl in the other, another bucket of cold water on the counter to rinse my gloves, and another area beside the sink to work on, covered with a dollar store plastic tablecloth. ( I taped the table cloth just under my window, so that any splashes wouldn't get on the wall.) That work space is just a bit bigger than your standard dish drainboard/rack. As I put each piece into a beer cup with dye, it went into a dollar store kitty litter tray, sitting on my stove top. Beside my workspace.
Ideally, this would be done in a laundry room, or garage with running water. I don't have a laundry tub (yet), so kitchen it was. But I was masked when mixing the powder (N95 masks are everywhere now due to Swine Flu), and had my kitchen window open. I did find the blue dye was unappealing in smell, and the odour of the soda ash is yucky, but I kept that to a minimum (got rid of the solution as soon as done. I would recommend good ventilation when rinsing, or else wear a mask. And ALWAYS rubber or latex gloves.
Ideally, this would be done in a laundry room, or garage with running water. I don't have a laundry tub (yet), so kitchen it was. But I was masked when mixing the powder (N95 masks are everywhere now due to Swine Flu), and had my kitchen window open. I did find the blue dye was unappealing in smell, and the odour of the soda ash is yucky, but I kept that to a minimum (got rid of the solution as soon as done. I would recommend good ventilation when rinsing, or else wear a mask. And ALWAYS rubber or latex gloves.
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